What is history coming to?

I was looking for the actual memo or report on the web but I can't find it. Funny, funny, sad stuff.

No worse than the Georgia schools that teach creationism.

There's no such thing as evolution. Everyone knows it was a talking snake and an apple.

There have been mistakes and glaring omissions in textbooks since the invention of the printing press. I doubt if any students are going to lose points on their SAT's because of a few pc edits.

Mythology is a better word.

None of those errors seem to be the result of PC meddling though.

Putting those two articles in one thread makes no sense.

There was a great Fresh Air on NPR last night with an authot named Diane Ravitch about the textbook review and revision process for editing bias. There are stupendously stupid things going on with textbooks..

Listen to it <a href="http://freshair.npr.org/day_fa.jhtml?display=day&todayDate=04/29/2003" target="_blank">HERE</a>

Ravitch is the author of the new book, The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn. In her book she chronicles the efforts of school boards and bias and sensitivity committees to edit and shape the textbooks that end up in classrooms. Some examples of this include: omitting the mention of Jews in an Isaac Bashevis Singer story about prewar Poland, changing the expression "My God!" to "You don't mean it," and recommending that children not be shown as disobedient or in conflict with adults. Ravitch writes that the process has evolved into a practice that excises "words, images, passages and ideas that no reasonable person would consider biased in the usual meaning of that term."

Isn't California run by Democrats? And they let this happen. Not only do we have to worry about the crazy religous Republicans, We have to keep an eye on the PC Liberal Democrats. Where are Susan Sarandon and Martin Sheen when you need them?

"Let" this happen? Since when do politicians WRITE or EDIT school text books?

Rest assured, I think over-PC-ization is a really bad idea. But how can you blame a politician of any stripe for the content of a school textbook?

Micah is correct. The Judicial system is far more to "blame" for the overuse/abuse of P.C. in America. But even that has nothing to do with school textbooks. This is just a case of a single public school system mucking around.

What bothers me just as much as some PC knucklehead seeking out things to be offended by, is the equally odious reaction it gets from those on the opposite end of the scale. It's usually only a matter of time before they go from criticising those doing the editing (and quite right too) to complaining about all these pesky "pressure groups" and "minorities" forcing their views on the world (who, if they had half the power some think they do, wouldn't be minorities at all). From there, you're usually only a few short steps from ideologies that are far more dangerous than a handful of over-zealous loony liberals changing "blackboard" to "chalkboard".

<a href="http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/members/dist25/pr02/p111502a.htm" target="_blank">http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/members/dist25/pr02/p111502a.htm</a>

I don't know the whys and wherefores, but textbook review is apparently in the hands of state governments. Without commenting on whether anyone has a particular agenda or not, there's definitely an avenue for some group to further that agenda; legislators "assist the board in recruiting members". If the right creationist contributes to the right campaign...poof, one more vote for crummy textbooks. I'm not saying that's definitely the case, but the mechanism for that to happen is there.

The problem seems much bigger than that.
There are four GIANT publishing houses who monopolize the textbook industry; collectively they kneel to pressure put upon them through complaints from both liberal and conservative review organizations when it comes to characterizations of race, sex and religion. The people and groups making the complaints which shape what ends up in your children's textbooks are complete yahoos; from what I've learned it sounds alot like having the folks who generate Nielson ratings picking your kids' curriculum.

I recommend listening to that Fresh Air broadcast I linked above - the author in this case works inside this review process and claims to have writtten her book out concern for what she's seeing as essentially innaccurate and revisionist material that's getting in the hands of our kids under the guise of it being genuine information.

Ahhhhh home schooling is looking better and better. At least then I can brainwash my kids with MY brand of soap.

Original.

If this isn't political then I don't know what is. And from the article-
Cali Dept. of Education-If they aren't elected officials they are appointed by elected officials.
PC politics is all over this one. California is one fucked up PC state. This is the place(San Francisco) where they will pay for you to have a sex change operation. Tax dollars to cut your penis off-what a country.

Beats spending tax dollars to bomb the living shit out of people.

I listened to that broadcast on NPR yesterday. It's fascinating. Many of the things textbooks and standardized tests are not allowed to refer to are astoundingly absurd:

• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">fossils and dinosaurs (because they suggest evolution)
• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">slavery, alcoholism, divorce, poverty, cancer, rats & mice (thought to upset sensitive children and therefore lower their test scores)
• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">earthquakes and snow (because they suggest regional bias)

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Some attempts to avoid bias have resulted in an interesting presentation of the facts at hand. For example, since Islamic advocacy groups will not allow discussion of that religion's treatment of women, some textbooks simply mention how much women's rights have expanded because of Islam.
She said that the main problems with all of this, in her eyes, were that:
1. this method of presenting the facts has resulted in boring school books
2. the PC angle has resulted in an image of people at large as being unrealistically homogeneous

Her suggestions on how to end the reign of the language police sounded great, but I find it hard to believe that these big four companies would ever let that happen.

I really wonder how long this has been going on. At first I was shocked at how PC everything is, apparently, in textbooks nowadays. But then I began to remember that even when I was in school, I found that a lot of particularly unpleasant yet interesting sections of history were glossed over by the texts.
And I feel like I should be able to come up with a provable example of something I've learned different since school, but I can't come up with anything. That might have something to do with the way teachers just teach to prepare you for tests, though.
The thing about this that gets under my skin the most: These textbooks, whether they're trying to or not, are ignoring meaning and culture when they're that cravenly PC. These guys are supposed to be helping to prepare everyone for the world, and instead they're chiseling away at history itself.
It's no wonder this country is the way it is when our schools can't even talk about the difference between cultures.

The idea of not using a story that takes place in an ice storm because some kids who live in nicer climes wouldn't understand it is just odd. It defeats the purpose of going to school. It defeats the whole purpose of learning to read. Glossing over the uglier bits of history is bad enough, but it sounds like these committees collectively want the next generation to live in a bubble.

There's no way you can raise another generation of compliant sheep if you spend all of their education time actually teaching them things.

I'd like to see the looks on these kids' faces when they turn to The Weather Channel or see a picture of Mount Rushmore.

So sad and true well said Kronos.

Just so we're on the same page: It's ok to gloss over the genocide of the Indians but call the Founding Fathers the Framers and people FLIP OUT.

Indeed. It's not like history textbooks were LESS warped before. They were just warped in another direction.

And frankly, I'd rather that books err on the side of semantics (framer/founding father...whatever) than on the side of ignorance (minimizing the brutal impact of manifest destiny and colonization or ignoring the contributions from minorities in America's past and saving a few for "Black History Month.").

In any case, a history textbook should be where a child's relationship with history STARTS.

<a href="http://chud.com/board/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=24&t=001431&p=" target="_blank">Walter Karp</a> still has the best essay on education going. Note the appropriate use of the term 'republican'.

Well said Grifter I concur.

What do y'all think about the relationship between political correctness and Orwell's newspeak? It seems pretty solid from some of these things.

Grifter, you are right on.

What do y'all think about the relationship between having stupid beliefs and talking like an idiot?

You can say y'all in the south without losing credibility. Writing it is just odd though.

That post wasn't even about you. Dumbass.

And don't give me some bullshit about tolerating your opinion in a thread when you call for the death of the "PC Police," you evil shit.

Nice work Devin. Instead of actually answering the question, you go off on the use of the colloquialism "y'all."

Bravo.

Your question comes from the depths of stupidity. Like your language.

So PC talk is NOT like newspeak? It's changing the language we speak by making things taboo, like newspeak. It's glossing over history and "bad thoughts" just like newspeak. Show me why it isn't newspeak, instead of launching into ad hominem attacks.

Devin, you're absolutely in the wrong here. If you're not going to contribute to this aside from insults, then bounce.

Well, let's see:

-- Gotta get ride of the Boston Tea Party, right? I mean, it was a terrorist act, and that might upset children.

-- Can't teach what Neil Armstrong said on the moon. Using "man" and "mankind" was sexist and exclusionary.

-- Hell, let's not teach about war, because that implies killing and death may be a touchy subject for some students.

-- Don't use "King" or "Queen," those terms are sexist, instead, use "Crowned Head of State Who May Be Either Male or Female."

I'm gonna go beat my head against the wall now.

I don't gloss over it when I teach my son. I swear to God I tell him we slaughtered and systematically tried to eradicate them.

nobody stops you from talking like an idiot here or spouting your stupid beliefs. keep it up.

No better way to guarantee future compliance than by keeping them ignorant through the clever use of institutionalized boredom.